February Flicks File

The full list is here. I have not been challenging myself with my selections.

Joker (2019)

Netflix, original English
As the titular character presents to his therapist the joke diary he has been keeping, the same sinking feeling of shame as I had watching Jamie Dornan’s character draw in his inspiration sketchbook in The Fall washed over me: Serial killers are better at living creatively than I am.

Further thoughts have been redacted because I don’t have time to get shit-stormed by by people with references to love and kindness in their social media profiles.

(If you are wondering, yes: I did go find a notebook and start scribbling.)

The Great Gatsby (2013)

Netflix, original English
Why, for the love of all that does not suck, would anyone go through all the time and effort and expense of visually immersing the audience in 1922–with rented Duesenbergs and seven metric tons of rhinestones–and then destroy the illusion with 21st-century rap and pop music?!?!? WHYYYYYYYY?!?!?!

I enjoyed the script; the set-up where Nick’s psychiatrist recommends he write the story was a beautiful vehicle for presenting Fitzgerald’s prose. But DiCaprio wasn’t playing Jay Gatsby; he was playing Robert Redford. In the romance scenes, he looked like he was thinking about how he looked on camera, and that would have ruined the movie if the inclusion of Beyoncé hadn’t already ruined it.

TL;DR: I should have re-read the book instead.

Amadeus (1984)

arte Mediathek, original with French subtitles
Good old arte. They’ll give me German with German subtitles, German with audio description for the visually impaired, French with French subtitles, and original audio with French subtitles, but they’ll never give me original audio with German subtitles. I thought I could hold a grudge forever, but I am a pushover compared to French government-funded media.

Anyway, despite the R-rating, I first saw this film when it was fresh (probably at school, yikes) and have enjoyed it throughout the years. On this viewing, I was incredibly bothered by the familiar appearance of Emperor Franz Joseph, so I went looking for him. Oh. Oh my.

Beautiful music, beautiful costumes, beautiful settings, I should be watching this sort of movie every week.

Batman (1989)

Cable, original English
This was my eleventy-dozenth viewing, and I noticed something for the first time: The state flag of Gotham is the state flag of Indiana.

Tim Burton’s Batman is still the best Batman.

Murder Mystery (2019)

Netflix, original English
Generally terrible, and Jennifer Anniston is still irritating after all these years, but this is an Ólafur Darri Ólafsson fan blog and I enjoyed his performance.

Voodoo Man (1944)

Amazon, original English
You know that nagging feeling that you’ve seen something before?

Like Invisible Ghost, you shouldn’t think too hard about this one. And here is another classic example of me knowing either too much or too little (or both?) to simply enjoy watching a film: At a service station, Ralph is asked for coupons when he purchases gasoline. The war was raging, fuel was rationed–and as I learned at Iowa State in my textile history courses–fabric was also rationed with coupons, leading to changes in styling in women’s fashion such as “not cutting dresses on the bias” so less fabric was required. But the zombies in this movie made during wartime were wearing bias-cut dresses. What was going on in the studio?

Ärgerlich.

But generally enjoyable.

Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968)

Cable, original English
It started out funny, but after the first scene with Day it deteriorated so badly I only finished it because I wanted to watch Steve Allen.

Batman Begins (2005)

Netflix, original English
It was OK. If I finish the series before Netflix takes it down, I’ll write about all three next month.